"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence." - from George Eliot’s Middlemarch

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I own Catalyst, but feel free to borrow her; she’s a good time for all. I’m not making any money off this, but I should be. Compared to those self-indulgent chick-lit novels, this definitely deserves to earn money for the author.

Summary: The Cure is only temporary. While healing Rogue and Magneto find each other and realize they have more in common than they originally thought.

Soundtrack: I recommend the song “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones as this is a very politically charged chapter.

Dedication: To Miss Kilis Wale for the lovely reviews she gave me for each chapter today.

Notes: Fanfiction dot net has really been giving me a lot of problems lately with uploading. I had to code the last chapter in html directly onto the site. That sucked. Hopefully, this chapter will go down more smoothly. I visited a wine store that sells only Australian wine in the making of this chapter. Who knew there were so many wineries in South Eastern Australia? Many thanks to my diligent editor KumaDaPuma. She helps make this story possible. Also, many thanks to Ian McKellen for being so damn hot. He makes me wish I was a guy and gay, just so I could have a shot with him. Why can’t he be bisexual? But I digress.

Chapter Twenty: Unbottled War, Canned Love

Pyro:

Pyro was sure that he was scarred for life. He wished he had been born blind so he would never have seen the image of Magneto, his leader who he greatly respected, fucking Rogue on his desk. It was…. horrible. He couldn’t seem to erase vision of Rogue clutching her breasts and turning beat red as Magneto stood there stark still with his finger in her… Pyro threw up a little in his mouth. He was reminded of that lousy play Professor Xavier had made him read: “Oedipus” something where the guy is sleeping with his mother and then gouges out his own eyes in disgust. Pyro wished he could gouge out his eyes to erase the memory, but he knew it wouldn’t help.

Pyro walked back into the kitchen where several of the Brotherhood’s members were eating lunch and had wondered what the loud noises they heard were. Pyro had been the one sent to investigate. He returned with his mouth hanging open. He clutched the door frame for support.

“What was it?” Mystique asked over her BLT sandwich. Pyro’s distant, glazed eyes turned to her and his mouth tried to form words only to give up and look down at the floor.

“Pyro?” Catalyst asked.

“Um… you don’t want to know guys.” The mutants who were eating lunch exchanged glances.

“Is everyone alright?” Callisto, the girl with super speed, asked.

“Yeah. Everyone but me.” Pyro replied, picking his lighter out of his pocket and holding it tightly in his fist for moral support.

“If you’re not going to explain, I’ll just go have a look for myself.” Mystique rose from the table and walked to the door where Pyro put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” He looked her directly in her yellow eyes and willed her to understand.

“Why?” She asked.

“Those screams we heard…” Pyro hinted.

“Yes?”

“They were Rogue’s. Only they weren’t screams of pain. They were…” Pyro didn’t want to finish this sentence but everyone starred back at him clueless. “They were going at it. Like rabbits.”

“They?” Callisto asked.

“Magneto and Rogue.” Pyro answered.

“Oh, dear god!” Catalyst had known the two were a couple but she couldn’t believe those god awful screams could be from the two making love.

“No way.” Multiple Man shouted.

“That’s… that’s… disgusting.” Callisto said.

“You’ve got to be kidding. He’s kidding. Right?” Juggarnaut asked.

“Nope. I saw them with my own eyes.” Pyro told them.

“All the crashing and banging we heard?” Mystique asked hesitantly, not wanting to know the answer.

“It was rough. Real rough. They were on the desk.” Pyro answered.

“Don’t say anymore. I think I’m gonna throw up.” Callisto said.

“I can’t believe it. Rogue, that hot teen X-Men chick, and Magneto? Isn’t he like 50 years older than her?” Multiple Man was still in disbelief.

“Yup.” Pyro replied.

“And doesn’t she have that skin thing?” Multiple Man asked.

“Yup.”

“Okay, that’s it. I can’t eat lunch.” Callisto got up and threw out her sandwich and walked out of the kitchen. Pyro watched her go, echoing her feeling. He knew he wasn’t going to try to finish eating lunch now. He might not be up for dinner later either. As he left the kitchen he saw Mystique standing there, her hands on hips and her yellow eyes cold with fury.

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Pyro and Rogue:

Now that everyone in the Brotherhood of Mutants knew Rogue was sleeping with their leader, she got even more curious looks than she had before as the pathetic guest who couldn’t control her powers. But she also got a bit of respect as well. Suddenly her presence made more sense, even if it did conjure up images that no one found pleasant. However, Rogue’s growing friendship with Pyro was forever changed.

Pyro and Rogue continued to hang out together and be pals but there was an invisible wall between them that was Rogue’s relationship with Magneto. It was never discussed and never brought up. Whenever Magneto was mentioned it was kept to a strictly professional basis. And whenever something about sex or love came up, both steered the conversation clear to make sure they were talking about other people, not themselves. Finally, Rogue couldn’t take the strain this put on their friendship.

“Pyro, I’m sorry.” She addressed him one day while they were watching re-runs of ‘The Office’ in the common room. “I’m sorry that you had to see what you saw.” Pyro didn’t turn to look at her but continued to watch Steve Carroll on TV.

“Don’t worry about it. At least you weren’t caught with boss Michael Scott like Jan was.” He said referring to the characters on the show. Rogue laughed remembering the hilarity that ensued. “Besides before you it was Mystique and Magneto. But I don’t think they ever had as much chemistry. Or at least I never walked in on them.” Rogue appreciated Pyro’s attempt to lighten the conversation but she couldn’t shake the memory of Mystique’s glaring yellow eyes warning her about Magneto.

“So any other romances going on at the Brotherhood?” She asked like a teen looking for the latest gossip.

“Well, Multiple Man is always dating several women. He cheats a lot. You can never be sure he’s not screwing someone else. At exactly the same time.” At that, Rogue and Pyro broke out into fits of laughter.

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Magneto:

The inevitable had happened and the war had begun. It started accidentally only five hundred miles from the Brotherhood’s headquarters. In the city of Boston, policemen entered into a fire fight with a mutant gang of teens who had been going on a petty burglary spree. The exact details of what occurred are lost in history, but when the dust had cleared four policeman and two mutants’ ages 14 and 16 were dead. Boston became the hotbed of the conflict between mutants and humans and every group on both sides rushed to the city.

Tempers were high when the fatal shot was fired. A mutant congressman by the name of Perry Gabrio was gunned down in cold blood by an anti-mutant extremist group called The Hand of God. The Hand of God was a right-wing conservative group that believed mutants were an abomination to god. They felt that mutants were a lesser race and that only humans had been created in the image of God. Rumors had it that The Hand of God was financed by powerful conservative evangelical ministers who had ties to the Bush Administration.

With the death of Gabrio, Boston became a battleground and there was constant battle between the US forces and mutants. The small presence of the badly diminished National Guard attempted to maintain control but their numbers were too small since the majority of their forces were still overseas in Iraq. As the battle in Boston grew larger, riots in other major cities gained momentum. Soon mutants planned gorilla strikes against military bases throughout the country. Congress passed the Anti-Mutant Registration Act but the law came as too little too late. President Bush declared a state of emergency throughout the country and raised the terror alert to Code Red. Talk began about intern camps for mutants and with each day America fell further into chaos.

Overnight the membership of the Brotherhood swelled to approximately 30,000 mutants. They came from every walk of life, from every state in the union to the doors of Brotherhood’s branches throughout the country. Magneto had no way of accommodating all the new applicants and providing them with training. His work load multiplied and he spend more and more time working with Professor Kojak and several other newly appointed Lieutenants to develop training programs for the new mutants. He hand picked several new combat coordinators to undertake strategic missions to obtain military ordinance and equipment from the American Armed Forces.

Outside the US conditions were not nearly as bad for mutants and many fled the country. In the Europe Union for instance mutants were given equal rights under law. However, America’s conflict was slowly spreading abroad and mutants in every country began to feel unwelcome. President Bush had negotiated with Prime Minister Tony Blair of England so that England was passing its own mutant registration act and war threatened to break out in the United Kingdom. Magneto had already received several offers from English mutants to help start Brotherhood branches there.

As Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants grew, he found himself thinking often of Charles’ X-Men. The days when the X-Men could fight crime and spout a pacifist philosophy of mutant and human co-existence were numbered. Erik wondered how long it would be till the US Government shut the school down. He worried about Storm’s ability to be a wartime leader. The X-Men could have greatly used Charles Xavier’s exemplary persuasion skills. Without him, Erik wasn’t sure how long they would last. He found himself very melancholy for his ex-lover and late friend.

Charles had told Erik he would always be there when he was in his plastic prison. What had gone wrong? Admittedly the return of Jean Grey was not something either of them had expected. Magneto had tried to make the best of the situation; tried to use Jean for his cause and get some purpose out of his friend’s death. But in the end Magneto had been guilty of even more hubris than Charles. Magneto had been right about the war. But Charles had been right about Jean. And now where were they? Charles and Jean were dead. And Magneto had a war to fight that was quickly escalating out of proportion.

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Magneto and Rogue:

“No speaking until I have finished everything I have to say. Do you understand? Then you will get a chance to speak your opinion.” Magneto knew after the incident over the vaccine that it was not smart to keep Rogue in the dark anymore about the Brotherhood’s plans. So several weeks after the war began he sat Rogue down on the couch across from him in his study. He found he was nervous about what her opinion would be and he knocked the metal stress relief balls of his Newton’s Cradle on his desk back and forth unconsciously with his powers.

“Yes, I understand.” It had taken Rogue some time to come around to the idea of distributing the vaccine for the Cure. But their fight and subsequent make-up sex had helped to change her feelings on the matter. Again Rogue decided she would start to contribute to the Brotherhood. So she was trying to get herself used to following his orders and she replied back quickly.

“No matter what I say, absolutely no speaking until I am through.” His crystal ice blue eyes bore into hers and Rogue remembered the way he spoke to her when she was his prisoner before the Statue of Liberty. She wondered momentarily if she was about to be placed in a similar situation.

“Okay.”

“By 2050 mutants will make up 50% of the population. By 2060 more mutants will be born than humans. Did you know that?” Marie wasn’t sure if she was supposed to answer or if the question was rhetorical. She shook her head no.

“With the war starting between mutants and humans it will be many years before our two groups can ever hope to coexist in peace. I am not sure if that will ever be possible. Mutants are the superior species and humans do not seem inclined to give up their hegemony over the Earth anytime soon. Mutants need a land they can call their own: a land away from intolerance, prejudice, and genocide. A land where they can be free to live without fear of oppression. A land where they can be free to live just as God created them and can be properly educated on how to use their powers safely. In this land Marie, you would never have had to go through the ordeals you did to learn to control your mutation.”

He was a magnificent orator and here sitting only a few feet across from him his voice encircled her and flowed around her it’s melodious syllables and crisp timber causing his almost lyrical words to have a hypnotic effect on Rogue. She wondered if he asked her to jump off a bridge if she would be capable of stopping herself. She knew if he had asked her to power the machine again, in this way, she would have been proud to do it.

“So I set out to find a place where such a land could be possible. It needed to be a place strategically defendable, large enough to house the growing mutant population comfortably and it needed to have a hospitable climate. At first I considered using California and having Avalanche finish dislodging it from the continental US. But after a serious discussion with other mutant leaders we decided no one really likes California.” Rogue snorted out a laugh and Magneto gave her look that stopped her quickly.

“The only land that was of adequate size and isolation was the island continent of Australia. Australia has a relatively small population for a country of its size and natural resources: only 20 million residents. It has self-sustaining resources for industry and food production. Its climate is very hospitable and it is easily defendable with its Great Barrier Reef.”

“So Australia, once the land where England’s convicts were sent, was picked as the land for Mutants. Unlike the Jews and Israel we are unlikely to be given Australia by the United Nations. Instead we will have obtain it and hold it while expelling its native population. To that end, Catalyst and I came up with a plan to force the government of Australia to negotiate with us and hopefully to secede Australia without any bloodshed.” Rogue couldn’t help but see Erik in her memories when he tried to move to Israel after the holocaust only be denied residency because he was a mutant. She could tell how much this would mean to him.

“Catalyst has created an atomic bomb that will be stowed on the 747 we acquired and transported to Australia under the guise of a commercial airliner. The government of Australia will then be contacted and given an ultimatum to relinquish control of the country to the Brotherhood or the bomb will be exploded in the city of Sydney. Catalyst-” Rogue stood up, unable to contain her horror.

“That’s mass homicide. You’ll be as bad as all the people we’re fighting against. This doesn’t sound like you at all Erik.” With unhurried movements Magneto rose from his seat on the couch and his expression changed to one of barely contained fury.

“What did I say about waiting to speak until I had finished?” Rogue remembered his stipulation too late. His eyes blazed with anger and he seemed about to strike her. She felt fear course through her body, turning her stomach into knots. She was sure he would hurt her for her disobedience. She cowered in front of him, waiting to feel the jolt of his hand hit her. She waited and waited her nerves on edge and her body taut with apprehension. She wanted to feel the pain. She wanted to hurt.

It didn’t come. He had never struck her in a rage before but he was not opposed to reminding her who was in control. She felt two metal strips encircle her wrists and pull her arms around her back, where the metal bracelets stuck together and acted as a pair of handcuffs. With her arms held behind her back, Magneto used the metal to push her back down to a sitting position. Rogue felt herself shake with excitement at the fear he stirred in her. She was appalled by the strange feeling of helplessness and submission that flooded her senses and electrified her entire body.

“Now if I may be allowed to continue uninterrupted… I was going to explain that Catalyst has the ability to control and contain the nuclear explosion to target only defensive installations. It will be used only as a deterrent; however it should be sufficient enough to convince the Prime Minister of Australia to make concessions. From there the Brotherhood will ally itself with two other international mutant associations and the mutant dictator of Bangladesh to hold and defend Australia. It will be a land mutants can immigrate to similar to what the United States stood for to religious refugees. It is unlikely that either the U.S. government or the government of the United Kingdom will put up much of a fight to regain it as they are still stuck in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan. With the Mutant Human Civil War in the US that may well spread to other nations, there will be no one to stop us.”

Rogue didn’t know what to say and did not offer any other arguments with Magneto about the plan. It sounded almost feasible and Rogue was still reeling from the experience of being bond in his formidable presence. She did not leave the couch or request for the cuffs to be removed for several minutes.

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Magneto and Rogue:

You notice little things about a person when you begin to sleep with them. Rogue didn’t know if it was because she was spending so much time with Erik outside of their mentor student relationship or if it was because she was paying more attention. For instance, although Magneto had impeccable taste in food and was a fabulous chef, he had a weakness for canned foods. Rogue understood why from his memories. Not only were the cans made of his favorite material metal, but they were some of the first food the Red Cross got to him when he was rescued from Auschwitz.

Rogue noticed that every time Erik saw a can he would smile as though he was a child receiving a piece of candy for good behavior. His favorite canned food was Del Monte Fruit Salad in Extra Lite Syrup. Rogue knew he would sneak down after dinner two or three nights a week to the kitchen to enjoy the canned fruit alone. She followed him once and watched as he ate the contents of the can like it was his first decent meal in months. She found that eccentric trait of his oddly endearing and she made sure that Pyro and the other mutants never disturbed his canned fruit collection.

The more Rogue saw of Erik, the less she noticed his age. The wrinkles seemed less defined the grey hair was just a color, and a nice one at that. But this could be caused by her feelings for him that had been steadily rising with each wild climax he gave her. She didn’t like how she was losing perspective. She didn’t like how she eagerly awaited every second alone with him or how she found herself watching him at meals and having trouble paying attention to the other mutants when he was in the room.

But as time went by the nature of Rogue’s relationship with Magneto changed. He had been increasingly absorbed by the running of the Brotherhood and the coordination of its efforts in the Mutant Human Civil War. Magneto skipped meals to check in with Catalyst on the status of her experiments. He would spend whole nights locked in his study with Professor Jeri Kojak working out the details of the interaction between the multiplying branches of the Brotherhood. Against her better judgment Rogue grew jealous of the tall, leggy auburn-haired woman. Professor Kojak had been Magneto’s lover once, Rogue knew that from his memories, and she worried one of the those long evenings working together would lead to Rogue losing another man.

There is a saying in love: once broken never healed. And to an extent this was true of Marie. Bobby’s cheating had broken her heart. And although Magneto’s skillful hands and charismatic personality had done much to heal her wounds, the scars would never truly go away. So between Mystique’s prophetic warning and Professor Kojak’s long shapely legs, Rogue couldn’t help but worry.

To abate her worries and her increased concern over the situation going on in the US for mutants, Rogue tried turning to her old crutch. But, she had trouble finding any alcohol in the fortress other than some beer Pyro had, that she felt guilty drinking and the bottle of expensive award winning Belvedere Vodka that she knew was Erik’s favorite brand. Rogue refused to risk sneaking some, knowing that he would somehow figure it out and that he would not be as forgiving as Logan was about her drinking. A quiet tiny voice in her head told her to drink the vodka just to make him angry, just to make him discipline her again in that sexy, thrilling, and frightening way he had in his study. This voice stunned Rogue and she did her best to stifle it.

Instead, Rogue threw herself into doing work for the Brotherhood. She helped to organize and coordinate the campaign to distribute the vaccine for the Cure to mutants everywhere. Time was of the essence now, as the war had already begun. Meanwhile she began to work out aggressively at the gym taking out her frustrations on herself by pushing herself farther and farther on the treadmill till every muscle in her body screamed so loudly in her mind she was incapable of worrying. Her concerns faded away to the sounds of counting: miles left, minutes left, laps, pushups, sets, and weights. When the exertion at the gym wasn’t enough she would find Magneto and initiate one of their frantic, passionate love-making sessions. The longer her concerns went unanswered the more the time she spent between the sheets trying to forget she had them.

As Rogue and Magneto’s sex life heated up, there other interactions seemed to cool down. Gone was all the fun banter and joking that had once passed between them. Gone was the warm welcoming look in Erik’s eyes when she interrupted his work. Gone were all his diatribes on why she should enjoy opera and old movies like “The Godfather”. Gone were his corrections of her grammar. She would say “y’all” and “na ugh” just to try to get a rise out of him but he never seemed to notice. Marie began to wonder what had gotten to him. What had changed?

In bed he was the ultimate attentive lover, understanding just what she wanted and anticipating how she wanted it. From his memories, she knew the positions and moves he liked best and between the two they were perfectly matched. The minute they began to touch till they were breathing raggedly, collapsed against each other Magneto paid complete attention to her. She saw it in the way his eyes looked at her and the way he smiled at her. He was not distant from her in bed. But every where else he was hardly aware of her.

“Have you heard anything I just said?” She asked one day as he sat at his desk working on the Brotherhood’s expense reports.

“Yes, you were talking about trying to get Storm to fix the ozone layer over Australia after we invade it.” He didn’t look up from the ledger.

“That was ten minutes ago. I was just asking you why you never pay attention to me anymore.” She had her hands on her hips and her long hair flowed down in front of her shoulders. Magneto thought she looked beautiful when she was angry, but he would never tell her that.

“I have been occupied with waging a war Rogue. I am sorry if I have not had any free time for you lately.” But he wasn’t sorry. He had been doing it on purpose and he hated the look of hurt that formed on her pretty face.

“Couldn’t you take just a few minutes each day to talk to me?”

“Do you mind? I need to balance these books now. Mutant supremacy doesn’t come cheap.” Magneto went back to his work. He had no way to answer her without letting her know that he had been trying to detach himself from her for weeks. She turned away from him and starred at the empty fireplace. No blaze occupied its chamber.

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Notes: Let me apologize to anyone I may have offended including but not limited to right-wing conservatives, Israel, evangelicals, and the inhabitants of Australia. No harm or insult is meant by this story. All the details of it were invented just to show an interesting and convincing story about Rogue and Magneto. I do not condone terrorism, invasion of Australia, or the taking of land that belongs to others. This is a fictional story and Magneto is a complex, troubled man whose people are being discriminated against and killed in acts of genocide. The events that happen in this story are purely fictional and purely for the advancement of plot and the writing of plausible smut.

My story has taken on a life all its own. It’s like its own cult. As one fan told me it’s her “anti-drug” and several others have expressed how much it has taught them about sex. It even inspired some fan fiction of it’s own from KumaDaPuma. Wow, I never anticipated this from my humble little idea I had on a Thursday about two weeks ago. Amazing.

Preview: Smut time again. Marie likes it when Erik disciplines her. She likes it when he hurts her because she is hurting inside.